Seeds For Learning

Friday, November 18, 2016

I am sure you watch the news or see the news on your Facebook feed that it is filled with horrible actions done by people toward others. Instead of being humanKIND, some people are just humanMEAN. I believe that right now is the time as Angela Davis stated, "I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change, I am changing the things I cannot accept." I was thinking about that for a bit this week, especially as the unkindness towards others has become more and more documented. Even at my former junior high, there was an incident of a student ripping off another student's hijab. Could we all just walk two moons in someone else's moccasins?What if we decided that we would be more intentional on making a difference as an individual, or as a family? What if being humanKIND started with you, because it does.Maybe it means putting up a sign like this in your lawn that comes from Germantown Mennonite Church where my former classmate, Amy Yoder McGloughlin is the senior pastor.

Maybe it means as a family, finding new cultural places to visit and learn from. Maybe it means making a point to go to truly ethnic restaurants where the staff speaks other languages and the menu has other languages on it. Maybe it means that as a family, plan an ethnic menu at home after researching it and finding the products to make it with and it might even mean a trip to a local or not-so-local ethnic market.Maybe it means listening to music in other languages as we drive along.Maybe it means keeping nasty comments away from the ears of children and instead teaching them to see people with their hearts.Maybe it means going to a church that is more diverse than where we are.

My friend Kory posted this on her FB wall and I loved it!

Maybe it means looking up and saying hello to people who are different than us, smile and not turn away.Maybe it means that we should stop saying we are going to build a wall and instead, extend our table to break bread with people who don't look like us, talk other languages that are different than ours, and even have other faith backgrounds. Whatever it takes friends is what we are supposed to do to extend friendship, love and compassion. That is being humanKIND.Be that kind human!

I am sure you watch the news or see the news on your Facebook feed that it is filled with horrible actions done by people toward others. Instead of being humanKIND, some people are just humanMEAN. I believe that right now is the time as Angela Davis stated, "I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change, I am changing the things I cannot accept." I was thinking about that for a bit this week, especially as the unkindness towards others has become more and more documented. Even at my former junior high, there was an incident of a student ripping off another student's hijab. Could we all just walk two moons in someone else's moccasins?What if we decided that we would be more intentional on making a difference as an individual, or as a family? What if being humanKIND started with you, because it does.Maybe it means putting up a sign like this in your lawn that comes from Germantown Mennonite Churchwhere my former classmate, Amy Yoder McGloughlin is the senior pastor.

Maybe it means as a family, finding new cultural places to visit and learn from. Maybe it means making a point to go to truly ethnic restaurants where the staff speaks other languages and the menu has other languages on it. Maybe it means that as a family, plan an ethnic menu at home after researching it and finding the products to make it with and it might even mean a trip to a local or not-so-local ethnic market.Maybe it means listening to music in other languages as we drive along.Maybe it means keeping nasty comments away from the ears of children and instead teaching them to see people with their hearts.Maybe it means going to a church that is more diverse than where we are.

My friend Kory posted this on her FB wall and I loved it!

Maybe it means looking up and saying hello to people who are different than us, smile and not turn away.Maybe it means that we should stop saying we are going to build a wall and instead, extend our table to break bread with people who don't look like us, talk other languages that are different than ours, and even have other faith backgrounds. Whatever it takes friends is what we are supposed to do to extend friendship, love and compassion. That is being humanKIND.Be that kind human!

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

I don't know how you started off your classroom or your day, or what you did to set up the class for a successful day of learning today, the day after, but when I woke up I was thinking about you with grace and love to get through the day.

Maybe you are like me. I can't explain to my students what this election meant to me, my tongue is raw from biting it. With the election finally over and knowing what we know and moving forward, it was vital today for myself and educators like me to let healing begin in the classroom as well, without talking about the results as much and wrestling with that thought is how went to bed. I tried to figure out how to make what would be the day after, be a day that is great for all, including myself. This is where mattering comes in to play.

Mattering matters in moments like these, in moments of perplexity, in moments when events leave us startled and in moments when we try to rise up and meet the new sun with vigor. Mattering matters because it pulls us together, it shifts focus off of ourselves and puts it on others.

Mattering matters because it gives us hope and it gives us perspective and it is the reason we are here. There are many reasons why I crossed paths with Angela Maiers and today is a good reason why.

I decided today would be National Be Nice Day. I wrote it on the board in big letters and had the students do a Recap about it which I wish I could post, but I cannot because of facial recognition. They talked about ways that today they would go out of their way to be kind and try to do three random acts of kindness for others.

The world needs us to have these characteristics: compassion, respect, honesty, responsibility and self discipline, and for the love...be nice and to teach these things in school because they matter more to than a grade on a report card. I was overjoyed to see the doodles of two girls as we talked a bit this morning and about mattering, as we listened to Tim McGraw sing Humble and Kind and as we watched the Recaps of our classmates.

I know that I had to start this way, today...the day after. This is our future. I am with them, the future of the world, everyday as I have been since 1994 and I need them to be nice, stay humble and be kind.